Book Review of “This Is Your Brain On Food”

This Is Your Brain On Food by Uma Naidoo, MD (Nutritional Psychiatrist, Harvard Medical School)

Remember that old adage: “you are what you eat”? It turns out that according to Dr. Naidoo, what we eat affects our brains significantly. Many scientific studies have shown that our diet can improve mood and mental health conditions such as dementia, anxiety, ADHD, depression, sleep problems, and OCD. This book is such a unique contribution to the discussion on how food impacts the brain because the author is a psychiatrist, nutritionist, and trained chef. The science in this book is fascinating as well; in the anxiety section Dr. Naidoo goes into the connection between the microbiome in our guts, amygdala activation (the alarm center in our brain), and anxiety. Basically, anxious people have sparser and less diverse bacteria in their gut biome than healthy people. Every chapter explains the physiology of a different mental health disorder and then lists foods to embrace and foods to avoid. At the end of reading this book, you will view the delicious recipes included in a new light. Food is medicine! I give this book a 9 out of 10 on the SUSAN KNIGHT ACU QI BOOST METER. The only thing that would be a great addition in my opinion, would be more tips on HOW to make dietary changes that will stick.